


Put the Pot On, We'll All Have Soup

by elistaire



Category: Hellboy (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-29
Updated: 2013-03-29
Packaged: 2017-12-06 20:11:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/739640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elistaire/pseuds/elistaire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lately, Liz's undercover missions have involved entirely too much soup, not enough coffee, and no bad guys in sight anywhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Put the Pot On, We'll All Have Soup

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sotto_voice (Lexie)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lexie/gifts).



The cold was starting to seriously nip at her nose. Her breath still streamed out into white billowing mist, so she wasn't quite too worried about freezing to death. Yet. But she was starting to become uncomfortable. 

She was supposed to be undercover. The B.P.R.D. had sent her in to investigate a weird cult-like church group that allegedly might be trying to steal souls, raise demons, and take over the world. Or not. 

So far, all Liz had seen was an endless supply of bad coffee, and bean soup. Damn the bean soup. She was entirely sick of eating it, and it was wrecking havoc on her stomach. 

Not to mention that the group was nearly insolvent. Hence the older than dirt bus that was now broken down on the side of the road and the thinned out food. Liz longed for a mug of freshly brewed coffee. 

Sometimes she really doubted the source of a good chunk of B.P.R.D.'s intelligence. Last month she and Abe had been slogging through sewers looking for mutated, killer goldfish. They'd eventually found them, and the super-scary mutation was that the goldfish had plumped up to the size of eggplants and grown eyeballs on stalks. They weren't even killer goldfish, they'd only looked a bit cross-eyed. She'd been cold on that mission too, and wet from her mid-section down to her toes. 

With the bus broken down, there wasn't anything to do. She'd tried chatting with the others, but it had grown tiresome after the fifth variation on bean and cabbage soup was discussed. Now she was huddled into her coat, standing aloofly to the side by five feet, and waiting with the others for help to show up. The sun was going down soon, though, and Liz was starting to doubt the wisdom of taking this particular route. There hadn't been another car on the road for the last hour, and that meant they couldn't flag anybody down. 

She fingered the communication device in her pocket. She only had to flip it on and push a button and Red would come get her like she was a damsel in distress. Not that she didn't want him to feel like a great big hero, but they didn't need to cause the church group concern if there was no reason. Especially since they didn't show any signs of actually being interested in demons. Having one show up to jumpstart an interest was a lousy idea. Plus, she didn't need rescuing quite yet. If there was one thing she was good at, it was fending off the cold. 

"We should start a fire," Bob, one of the church leaders said as he turned a worried face to the weakening light in the sky. "And send someone to get assistance. It should only be a few miles of walking."

Liz lifted a hand and waggled it. "I'll help with the fire." She started collecting sticks along the edge of the road. A few of the others did as well, and within ten minutes they had a hefty pile. There weren't any large logs, so the fire wasn't going to last too long. She arranged the sticks on top of each other. "Go find more wood," she told the others. "I'll get it started."

"How?" asked a young boy, maybe about fifteen, that Liz thought went by the name Garret. 

"Rubbing sticks together if I have to," Liz said, and drew out a cigarette lighter from her pocket. "Or use this, if that doesn't work."

"Okay," Garret said with a grin. "I'll find more wood."

Liz turned to the pile of sticks. The lighter was just for show. It would have taken far too long to coax anything here to burn by such a small flame, but it was an insurance policy and a useful misdirection. Of course she had it on her. The others had scattered and no one was nearby, but she still hunched over, hiding her actions from view as much as she could, and stuck her hand on the ground under the pile. She concentrated, and found that ever-lit fire within herself, and she let it burst out around her hand. It glowed a brilliant, beautiful blue. It was concentrated heat, and within a moment, the sticks caught on fire and began to burn. She closed her hand into a fist and the flame extinguished.

Garret came back a minute later with larger sticks in his arms. "There's more," he said, and he looked impressed at the fire. "Wow, that wood must have been really dry."

Liz smiled at him. "I'm good at starting fires," she said. "Now let's get the others over here so they can warm up while we wait."

Garret trotted off to announce their success with starting a campfire. Liz followed more slowly after him. She could do this. She was a B.P.R.D. Agent, and it would only be a few hours more waiting for help, and besides, everyone was going to be warm and comfortable by the side of a fire that she had made. For once, her ability was a gift and not a curse, and useful for something other than fighting bad guys. 

Bob, the church leader, walked by her with a metal camp tureen, the sort that was glazed blue and speckled white. She followed him with her eyes and he caught her watching. 

"Bean soup!" he said with far too much exuberance for someone stranded along a deserted highway. "Good for the hungry, and with the fire, we can heat it up."

Liz narrowed her eyes. This church group might not be soul-thieves and demon-criers, but they were pure evil. If she had to eat bean soup one more night, she...wouldn't be responsible. 

She reached into her pocket and thumbed the communicator on. Well past time for Hellboy to come to the rescue.


End file.
